Theres nothing so soothing as the warm tones emitted from a vinyl record, for example. Growing up, I spent hours pouring through my dads record collection. He had everything from Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass to Iron Butterfly and just about everything in between. From a young age I was immediately drawn to the oil-slick-in-a-puddle visual quality that the LPs had and was entranced by the fact that all of those sounds could be contained in the endless spiral of the grooves. Eventually I began to amass my own collection, which sadly was interrupted by the digital revolution and the bane of my existence- the CD, or as Steve Albini once referred to it..'the rich mans 8 track'.
Eventually I had to embrace the annoying little silver disks, as titles were increasingly unavailable on the wax, but luckily for me, there was a small group of determined audiophiles committed to maintaining the vinyl LPs existence. Still, I knew I was settling on only owning half of the music I wanted to, and eventually procured a CD player, and much later, an ipod...
My purest brethren most assuredly groaning in dissaproval.

Anyhow, along the way Ive amassed a fairly broad collection of music that I love as if it were written especially for me. What follows, (as if you care,) is a list ala John Cusack in 'High Fidelity' of the best (or at least my favorite) records I have in my collection..

-The Afghan Whigs 'Up In It'

A beautifully agonizing album by Cincinnati's favorite sons, possibly only second to their 'Uptown Avondale' EP on which they pay tribute to Freda Payne, The Supremes, Percy Sledge and Al green. Awesome.

-The Black Keys 'Thick Freakness'

Two white boys playing the hell out of some dirty blues. Fuzzed out guitars, soulfully guttural vocals and a hard hitting snare and cymbal happy drummer that will remind you why youre glad you have ears. Its the only album Ive bought, and immediately purchased a second for my dad.

-Mule 'Wrung' EP

Three men playing the kind of soul wrenching sorrow that youd expect to be born while living life riding the rails and cooking leather boots over an open fire.

-Power Station 'self titled LP'

The 80s supergroup featuring Tony Thompson on percussion. What can I say? Im a sucker for the drums.

-Drive like Jehu 'self titled LP'

Big sounds from San Diego weaseled their way into my heart and burrowed their way to its core. If youre at all familiar with the work of Rick Froberg and John Reis, then in my humble opinion, this is the culmination of all that was great from the two of them. Artistic, angular, powerful, emotive and pissed all at the same time.

-Jesus Christ Superstar

Andrew Lloyd Webbers seminal masterpiece. The power of '39 Lashes', (later brilliantly covered by The Cows) is undeniably as moving as it is aggravating. Likewise is 'The Temple' also covered by the previously mentioned Afghan Whigs on their 1994 release 'Gentlemen'. Ive mentioned before, this record is one of the first pieces of music I ever heard, and what I blame most of my adolescent nightmares on.

-The Dirtbombs 'Dangerous Magical Noise' and 'Ultra Glide in Black'

What can I say about this band that I havent already? They make my world go round, and Soulcraft named a bike after them. Nuf said.

-Black Flag 'My War'

The first punk rock record I ever bought and was probably responsible, for better or for worse, for me keeping one foot firmly planted in reality, while the other foot was floating somewhere in the world of standard preteen despair and self destruction.

-Slint 'Spiderland'

To me listening to this is somehow akin to being stuck on a rapidly disintegrating ship on an angry sea, with a glimmer of calm visible on the distant horizon.

-Shellac 'Peel Sessions bootleg' 7"

While the recording quality isnt that good on this 7" record, its one of my favorites because its got one of the first recordings of 'Spoke' which was later released on their 'Excellent Italian Greyhound' LP, and also because I know for a fact that its the only Shellac release, bootleg or otherwise, that Shellac drummer Todd Trainer doesnt own.

-Turbonegro 'Suffragette City' 7"

This is like a Reeces peanut butter cup... Two great tastes that go great together. The mighty Turbonegro do justice to David Bowies hit, and when you get right down to it, David Bowie rules.

-The Cherubs 'Car jack Fairy' 7"

It was once said perhaps by me, or by someone like minded that 'Carjack Fairy' should be the new national anthem.

-Mule 'Im Hell' 7"

Another Mule Album. This is the one Ive mentioned here several times before on which they pay tribute to Nina Samones 'To Love Somebody'. I suppose a true Nina purest would be absolutely aghast at this version, but to my ears it sounds like pure bliss.

-The Jesus Lizard 'Wheelchair Epidemic' 7"

Always professional, always deranged, The Jesus Lizard dont disappoint in the least with their cover of The Dicks song as the title track. When this one came across the desk of Tipper Gore in her PMRC days, Id imagine she probably simply threw up her hands and walked away.

-The Hellacopters 'Killing Allan' 7"

Years ago I published a little fanzine and operated a record label on which we focused almost exclusively on 7" records. Eventually we were getting envelopes stuffed with 45s of every imaginable genre. Most of them sucked, but a pretty fair number did not. I was pretty taken with what these unknown Scandinavian long hairs were getting into, so I filed it away in my collection. It wasnt until several years later when the band actually got pretty huge and I found that folks were dropping up to $400.00 for this particular slab. I decided Id had good foresight when squirreling it away, but all of that aside, they do a tremendous job at channeling what those from the motor city like The Stooges and the MC5 were doing decades earlier.

Now lastly, not that Im nearly done, but more so because Id imagine youre fairly bored with this drivel by now, Ill feature this final gem that truth be told, I cant even remember the music on, but for obvious reasons, I bought simply due to the genius of the packaging.

-Buzzmuscle 'Assembler' 7"

Thats some crackerjack marketing right there, my friends.
As Ive flipped through the collection and attempted to narrow down the field of what ten records or so, Id like to be trapped on a desert island with, I realize Im no closer now then I was a couple of hours ago.

While these are indeed some of my favorites, there is a myriad of other titles chomping at their heels, and perhaps at some point when I have another afternoon to burn Ill get to listing those as well.

Its true what they say though... Record collectors genuinely are pretentious assholes.